Lottery games have become a time honored method of raising revenue for state and federal governments the world over. Traditional scratch-off and on-line games have evolved over decades, supplying increasing revenue year after year. However, after decades of growth, the sales curves associated with traditional games seem to be flattening out. Consequently, both lotteries and their service providers are presently searching for new forms of gaming.
To date there has been much speculation about enabling various lottery products to become available to the consumer over the Internet. The benefits are obvious: greater accessibility and a richer gaming environment for the player resulting in enhanced sales. However, there are various United States federal laws such as the Unlawful Internet Gaming Enforcement Act (UIGEA), the Wire Act, and other federal statutes involving interstate gambling that bring into question the legality of such an enterprise.
If Internet lottery games are to become part of the fare offered by US lotteries, appropriate adherence to state and federal laws is essential, as is designing a mechanism that meets applicable political and social constraints. It is presumed that acceptable Internet related business plans would net state lotteries increased profits. The presence of obstacles to such business plans has prevented most United States lotteries from making Internet sales a fait accompli.
In the past, United States lotteries have used the Internet as a vehicle for disseminating information about their lottery organizations, their games, and their promotions. They have also used the Internet for simulations of classic instant ticket games, games solely for entertainment without a fee, a means to communicate with players, for selling subscriptions to traditional lotto games, and for second chance drawings—drawings for prizes resulting from non-winning experiences based on the sale of a regular lottery ticket through historic channels.
Second chance drawings usually involve prizes of a minor nature compared to the main games. They are used to satisfy technical requirements involving the top tier prize availability in instant ticket games of limited size and duration with a set number of top prizes that may be awarded before the game is sold out. Second chance drawings are also used as temporary promotions to give game sales more value to lottery players. But by their nature, second chance drawings are a minor part of overall game designs, are not a principal motivator for ticket purchases, and although they have their place, they therefore have limited potential for assisting in the mainstream of lottery sales via the Internet or otherwise. They also typically have little entertainment value.
Additionally, United States Lotteries have come to appreciate the virtues of producing games with more entertainment value that can be sold at a premium price. For instance, ten-dollar scratch ticket games with higher payouts, and more ways to win now account for over $5 billion a year in United States lottery sales. Making Internet delivered games part of the prize structure for extended play tickets is the next step advancement in United States lottery product evolution.
Moreover, as gaming technology and systems continue to evolve and become more sophisticated, numerous new types of lottery related games and products become available that require discrete new methods of funding and enabling. For example, a Digital Gate can act as a specific interface between the validation file for the Internet portion of a game and the validation file for the non-Internet game or non-Internet portion of a game. Presenting the ticket for validation results in validating prizes for payment with the Digital Gate closed could result in only the non-Internet game or games being validated with a message delivered to the validating terminal that the Internet portion of the ticket has not been accessed or played. Conversely, if the Digital Gate has been opened, the prize or prizes on the Internet portion or portions of the ticket validate and prizes can be paid in addition to the non-Internet portion thereby enabling new play styles.
Thus, it is highly desirable to develop a lottery ticket platform that provides methods of funding Internet and new gaming opportunities. Ideally, this lottery ticket platform should be evolutionary in nature, starting with a familiar format that introduces a consumer to Internet and other new gaming formats. This lottery ticket platform should have minimal impact on existing lottery validation/redemption systems, or at least have minimal apparent impact from the consumer or retailer perspective.